


Matters of Consequence

by Yeah_JSmith



Series: Ruff Stuff [4]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: D/s, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Praise Kink, collaring scene, frank discussions of dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 06:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14302935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeah_JSmith/pseuds/Yeah_JSmith
Summary: You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.





	Matters of Consequence

**Author's Note:**

> You’ve all read the book I quoted in my title/summary, right? _Right??_
> 
> For readers of my other ongoing stories...I’m working on them, I swear, and I did just finish _Freefall._ In the meantime though, have a collaring scene and characters being super sweet to each other. Seriously, this is so fluffy and sweet it might as well be cotton candy.
> 
> [Ruff Stuff, the Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFsMzmYsLKfO4D5y1PUHlsn_epYk4ROpn)

The upside to being in a high-stress, demanding line of work was that being in bed together was likely to be a chance to catch up on sleep while cuddling. It wasn’t that Nick was opposed to sex marathons or what have you, when the mood was right and there wasn’t any pressure, but it was always nice to know that he was appreciated for something other than his particular anatomy. Even with all the extra muscle she’d put on at the academy, Judy still fit perfectly along his lazy curl, the top of her head just level with the underside of his muzzle and her large feet pressed against his thighs.

God, but she worked herself far too hard. Nick understood _why,_ but she had knots in her small shoulders and sores on her feet. Real police work was going to be murder unless she started wrapping her heels to take some of the pressure off. He ran his claw-tips through the fur on her side, trying not to be so gentle that it would tickle. It was weird to watch her sleep; she looked smaller than she physically was. She had always been small, of course, but somehow when she was asleep she _felt_ smaller, as though her lack of presence made her fragile. His body wanted more than anything to fall asleep again, but he’d missed her, and there was some odd fear that if he closed his eyes he’d wake up alone. He didn’t want to fall asleep anyway. There was something itching at him, and lying in bed with her wouldn’t solve it. Carefully, he pulled away and got out of bed before stretching. Before he turned to their tiny portable dish cupboard, he looked back to make sure he hadn’t woken her.

She was still out cold.

The harsh and rigorous training regimen at the ZPA was obviously wearing on Judy, so Nick had spent the past few months cheering her on from afar and spoiling her when she got a free moment to come into Zootopia proper to see him. This weekend, though, was a different story. Everyone not active in service fields got three days off for Winter Solstice, per tradition, and Judy had opted to share it with him instead of visiting Bunnyburrow.

She and her family still weren’t getting along, it seemed. It was unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. Judy had showed less tolerance for disparaging comments since she and Nick had been friends, and while he didn’t think it was _because_ of him, he liked to think that their closeness was slowly but surely teaching her that it was okay to be selfish sometimes. It was okay to be upset about being denigrated and unappreciated. Every time she got angry at the way mammals treated _him,_ it gave her permission to be upset about other kinds of injustice directed toward herself.

She’d fallen asleep almost immediately after arriving. She was still curled up, sucking in the fading warmth from where he’d been sleeping next to her, but Nick chose not to wake her until their tea was ready. He was nervous. He’d been putting this off for a while now, worrying about causing her additional stress (and worrying that she’d be put off by his proposition), but this was _them._ It was Nick and Judy, together, and he was confident that even if she wasn’t on board, she wouldn’t be offended, and even if he was wrong about that, she wouldn’t leave him over it. She wasn’t the type to give up so easily, and there were plenty of other reasons to leave him that had nothing to do with –

His heart felt like a stuttering wreck as she shifted in her sleep.

“Okay,” he whispered. “You can do this, Nick.”

He was 27 years old and he’d never committed to anything the way he was committed to Judy. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be alone, untouchable. Hard and brilliant. Instead, he was warm and soft, and it was _her fault,_ but instead of being angry he was _okay,_ and sometimes...he was even happy. A little. He knew what it felt like to offer trust and not be snubbed.

The box had been sitting in the top drawer of the dresser for months now, almost as long as she’d been in the academy. She had never looked in it. She hadn’t had a reason, and she wasn’t the type to go through his unmentionables unless he asked her to. As much as he respected her, she respected him, and that made honesty easier. Not easy, but easier.

Nick jumped as the electric kettle wheezed. He reached down into the portable cupboard and brought down two mugs, one ear on Judy, who seemed to be waking. Yeah, she was definitely exhausted. Normally, she’d have awoken as soon as he moved. He planned to keep her in bed, or as in-bed-ish as possible, all day, starting with chamomile tea instead of the coffee they usually went for.

“Hmm, Nick?”

He looked back to catch the tail-end of her stretch, which lifted her hips in an arch that had him fumbling with their mugs. Those core muscles were no joke. Her casual display of flexibility did _things_ to him, things that he would never think about if she weren’t who she was. “Morning, Sunshine.”

“Bleh,” she replied. He could hear her shifting on their bed. He decided not to peek again until their tea was steeping. “I could sleep for another week.”

“Good thing we’re staying in for the holiday then,” said Nick. He held very still as she snaked her arms around him from behind and nuzzled his spine. “So why don’t you get back in bed? I’ll bring you your tea and a present.”

“You’re my present,” she told him quietly, moving one of her paws to caress his hip and the curve of his rear. He tried to stay relaxed as she moved her paw back again. “I just want to hold you forever.”

“As nice as that would be, _I_ want to get back in bed. That all right with you, _Milady?”_

“Jerk,” she murmured affectionately. She wasn’t a fan of obsequious terms like _Mistress_ or _Milady._ According to her, they put her on a pedestal, removing her mammality with reverence instead of respect. She wanted to be treated like everybody else almost as much as she wanted to be a police officer. “Fine, then, we’ll get back in bed. But you had better cuddle with me, because I miss you.”

“What a hardship,” he said dryly.

“Actually, hold that thought. I need to pee. I’ll be back in a second.” She gave him a feather-light tap on his hip. “Love you.”

Every time she said that, it felt like a gift. She raced out of their apartment, heading for the communal bathroom, and he drew the box out of the dresser. It felt heavier than he knew it was. This was it: no going back. A commitment he was...strangely okay with. They loved each other, didn’t they? They’d been together long enough for it to be a logical step, and she was stubborn as hell. He was allowed to commit to someone who had demonstrably proven to reciprocate his dedication.

He looked up and blinked as Judy opened their door again. She looked darker gray than usual, and he had to blink again to get rid of the shadows.

“How long were you staring off into space,” she asked him, coming forward and opening her paws, probably to embrace him.

In lieu of answering that question, he simply held out the box, willing his paws not to shake and give him away. This was new territory for both of them. He had no guaranteed reaction; the next step was in her callused little palms. In any other case, Nick would be put off by the lack of control, but Judy had always been different. Even when they hadn’t been this close.

She removed the lid and peered at the contents, looking perplexed. She nibbled on her lower lip. He was overwhelmed with the urge to take it back, to say _just kidding_ and eat the $150 it had cost to get it specially made, but that wasn’t them. It wasn’t him, not with her, not anymore. She’d always believed he was braver than he felt, and he wanted to prove her right.

“Is this…?” Judy removed the black collar from the box and held it up at eye level. He’d spent enough time holding it, running his paws over the cork leather, to have memorized the tooled ivy pattern, the careful stitching around the metal loop in the front, the rounded buckle in the back. “Nick, what?”

“I’ve been thinking about promises,” he told her, nodding at the collar. “About the promise you gave me. I believe you when you say you love me. But to me...on my end...promises are intangible, and therefore breakable. I don’t remember ever making a promise I felt obligated to keep, even if I do end up keeping most of them just incidentally. So I wanted to give you something a little more solid. Every time you see it or touch it, you’ll know. Every time _I_ see it or feel it I’ll remember. When I tell you I’m yours, it’s not a platitude or an empty gesture. It’s a fact.”

“I don’t know,” she half-whispered, holding the collar tightly in her paw. “I mean...isn’t this a little bit sudden?”

“Not for me. I commissioned that when you left for the academy. I just kept putting it off because I was scared of your answer.” He shrugged, trying not to let her reluctance get under his fur. “It’s not like we have to put it on right now, or ever. You look... _really_ nervous. What’s wrong?”

“I just. It. Um. It doesn’t seem appropriate. Considering history and...politics. I know it’s discreet enough that most mammals won’t even register it, and our relationship is no one else’s business, but aren’t you worried about the fallout should someone see? Aren’t you worried about professional consequences? Someone might try to say, you know, _legally,_ that I’m taking advantage of you or abusing you. I would love to have this with you, I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

 _Oh._ He’d been so caught up in the symbolism that he hadn’t realized what she might think given their cultural differences. She was right, in a sense, if you only thought like a bunny. Their dynamic was already unconventional. If they did this, the first question on any random bunny’s lips would be about the politics. It was weird, because Nick didn’t see a reason for anyone to stick their nose into other mammals’ affairs in the first place, but they probably would. Still, it didn’t mean the same thing for canids as it did for bunnies; Judy’s species might think of a collar as a declaration of ownership, but foxes didn’t think of it in that way. Sometimes the nicer ones were used as bonding accessories, but half the Zootopian canids wearing collars just wore them as jewelry. Collars engraved with family symbols were particularly popular with wolves.

“I’m trying to think like a bunny,” he told her, attempting to simplify his thoughts.

She blinked. “What?”

“Foxes wear collars like mammals wear bracelets or ties. It’s a canid thing. If you were a vixen, it would mean hardly anything, but you’re not, and I wanted to do something for us that didn’t have any potentially dangerous social consequences. I want this. If you don’t, that’s fine, but I’m not suggesting this with no forethought. I want to be yours, Judy. And – full disclosure here – I’m not going to hide what you are to me, even if I don’t advertise either. I _want_ everybody else to know that you allowed me to give myself to you. So if other canids see it they won’t think poorly of you, and if other bunnies see it I won’t be ashamed. They can go choke on their own eyeballs if they judge us.”

She stared at him, and he wondered if this had been a bad idea after all. Maybe he should have eased her into the idea, maybe he should have _asked,_ and he went to take the collar back, but she didn’t let go. “Nick, I...how are you so perfect?”

“If I am, it’s because you make me that way,” he returned, kneeling before her. Every time she said something like that, she made him feel _special._ It almost hurt to be valued so. “You have faith in me. You think I’m good, and I want to be good for you.”

Judy reached out, but hesitated. “If I put this on you, when will you wear it?”

“Ideally? Always. But I’ll defer to you on that one.”

She rubbed the side of his muzzle gently, then leaned in to carefully reach around, pulling the collar tight enough that he could feel it without making him feel like he was choking. He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling and the tiny sound of her ragged breathing. His nose pressed into her collarbone. She smelled amazing. The jingle of the buckle seemed to dominate the room in the hush of the moment. Every sense was heightened; his nerves were singing, and he imagined he could feel the blood pumping through his body.

When she pulled away, her eyes were suspiciously shiny. He chose not to tease her about it, because this was a special thing for her. For them both. Firmly, she said, “Don’t wear it if it’s going to do more harm than good. If you want it on all the time, that’s fine, but don’t put your livelihood on the line. I want you to be safe and I want you to be okay. Promise me.”

“I promise,” he agreed. She was always so careful with him. Even when she was tough on him, even when he had to stand in the corner or confess to her before she’d allow him a spanking, her _goal_ was to care for him. The amount of love in all of her gestures sometimes baffled him, because who had ever liked Nick Wilde enough to be careful? Who had ever liked Nick Wilde enough to know that he didn’t _really_ want to be alone?

Judy sank slowly to her knees and took his paws, bringing one to her lips and kissing it. She didn’t usually go in for grand gestures, but that was something he liked, too. Grand gestures meant pressure. The little things, like kisses on the paw, and neck or belly rubs when he was stressed about his apprenticeship, were reassuring. She didn’t expect him to reciprocate. He just wanted to.

“I like it,” she said, eyes taking in the look of the collar. “It makes you look extra pretty.”

“An unintended side effect, but not unappreciated,” he replied genuinely. He helped her off the floor. “Come on, I still want to spend as much time in bed with you as possible.”

“Twist my arm, why don’t you,” she quipped, and tugged on his paw as she fell back onto their bed. He touched his collar with a smile and joined her, wrapping her up in his arms again from behind. They could drink their tea in a bit, after it had cooled. Or they wouldn’t, if they forgot about it or they fell asleep again.

There wasn’t anything making him anxious anymore, after all.

“I’m never going to let you go now,” she told him after a little while. “Not ever. Not unless you ask me to.”

“Not even when I get old and annoying?”

She turned on her back, so that she could prop up her head with one paw and look over at him. Her adoration was intense. “Before I met you, I was a wild thing. I was _so focused_ on my goals that you couldn’t pin me down and get a commitment out of me for anything. It made me flighty and maybe a little off-putting, even though I never meant to be. But you...you tamed me, Nick.”

“There’s an old fox saying,” he told her, nosing her neck, just to be closer to her. “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. So I guess we’ll have to be responsible for each other.”

“I’d like that.” She rolled over completely to rest her chest on his. He put his arm around her and listen to her breathe. They were quiet in the quiet of the morning, and Nick thought he’d like that, too.


End file.
